Thursday, January 08, 2015

A comment by Daniel on Vox Day’s blog put this amusing spin on yesterday’s story about the 2014 Worldcon financial report:

Semi-on topic: thanks to record memberships, LonCon finished with a cash surplus of…

…about £1,000.

Without Larry and Vox last year, they would have been deep in the red.

There you have it: all the people who joined to stuff the ballot box for Larry Correia’s “Sad Puppies” slate kept the Worldcon afloat. Now I know how that English schoolboy felt in Hope and Glory when he discovered his school had been bombed by the Luftwaffe — “Thank you Adolf!”

No doubt the pinkshirts will try to deny it, but there is no question that Sad Puppies was to the financial benefit of Worldcon. Some have tried to claim that the huge increase in memberships was the result of the con being based in London rather than the reaction to the nomination of works by Larry, Brad, me, and others, but you have only to compare the percentage increase in voting memberships to the increase in nominations to see that Sad Puppies not only inspired more involvement on the Right side of the science fiction spectrum, but on the Left side as well.

Did you hear the mournful baying of the Sad Puppies this morning? Yes, the pack is back in 2015, this time under the direction of Brad Torgersen. And his arguments for renewing this bloc voting campaign are one dogwhistle after another. Usually you can’t see these kinds of contortions outside of a circus.

The Hugos are a popularity contest – but not the right kind of popularity.

The Hugos “skew ideological” – Did you know they were trying to cure
that problem when Vox Day got a Sad Puppies endorsement last year? (I
thought it was only on House they try to cure patients by giving them another disease…)

The Hugos often ignore “successful ambassadors of the genre to the
consumer world at large” – That dogwhistle is at a frequency almost too
high for me to hear, but I believe he has a particular New York Times bestselling author in mind.

Anyway, if you felt something pushing against your “Worldcon fandom
zeitgeist” today — that’s because the dogs are off the leash!

As one might expect, he's missing the points.

Mournful? They may not be enjoying this, but we certainly are.

The pinkshirts have long denied that the Hugos are a popularity contest. Sad Puppies belied, and continues to belie that argument.

No one has ever claimed Sad Puppies was about sales. That being said, an endorsement by Larry Correia can absolutely be proven to boost sales.

Again, the pinkshirts have always denied that the Hugos skew ideological. Sad Puppies disproved, and will continue to disprove that denial.

It's not just the Hugos. For example, Chaos Horizon noted the refusal of mainstream reviewers to even review Monster Hunter: Nemesis, considered to be a likely Hugo nominee.

Sad Puppies 2 was a blast and I'm thrilled Brad will run with it this year. Of course we're happy when they prove our points by refusing to even read works which, if they did read them, are massively better than any of the other nominees.

I don't understand this mindset that as long as the other rabbits all agree that we're sad, then that's all that matters. Never mind that pesky reality stuff.

This is like something out of high school. It's as if some Goth wannabes were to stuff the student council ballot box such that they win, and then insist they are, like, rilly the true popular kids while denying any need for a vote recount.

Mournful? Mournful?! All I hear is chortling and laughing as the guys leaning up against the fence point their fingers at the frowning emo kids as they walk by with their sigh-fie books, telling each other under their breaths that one day, one day, they'll get back at those bullies, and they'll show the world!

I enjoy Sad Puppy campaigns more than most things on VP these days. Not discounting everything else, it is just that Sad Puppy and going after those at the SFWA (and now anti-GamerGate) gives me more "LOLs".

Hm. To the Sad Puppies and Ilk with any entertainment deficiency at the moment: you are welcome.

And to Mike Glyer?

Woof.

File 770 really is/was a pretty decent 'zine for industry interest. Mike's problem is that he can't seem to appease the Pink SF faction, and therefore appears to be wholly unreliable to the Blue. I do find it a bit ironic that a former 'zine upstart doesn't recognize the 'zine-yness of Sad Puppies, or the Hugo-worthy quality of the entrants.

Pink has already declared that there is NO PLACE for middle grounders, so they nuke them into submission, while Blue sees middle grounders and rightly guns them down because they are at best collateral, at worst an SJW turncoat.

Old Man's War was probably the high-water mark of the post-Bust legacy of fence-straddling sci-fi.

Everything since has been a build up to division. The problem for Pink is that their ranks were always small and are thinning. The problem for Blue is how to satisfy the demand for content to the swelling, ravenous ranks who have rejected the starvation methods of Pink.

In the spirit of the award, here is - completely free of charge, in keeping with the packet tradition- my Hugo nominee, in the fan epic novel (crossgenre) category:

Lesbians are Good (non-phallic, transgender ROCKETSHIP): A Slipstream Flash Novel

If you were a short ex-marine dinosaur, my love, even with vestigial arms, you would have out-benched your daughter.

a couple months ago I picked up three free, excellent condition, books of the A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (or whatever his name is). Now, ever since I saw the author get feted by the San Francisco liberals at a Symphony concert (he did an excellent read along), I've been suspicious of his political leanings.

Finally got around to reading book 1 this week. I just reread the Narnia series last week so that I could quiz my son. The contrast between the two authors is stark. I will say that Lemony S is a good wordsmith. But his world view is dark, dark, dark.

Dreariness pervades every aspect of his writing. It is like reading a less cheerful Roald Dahl. But the thing that struck me was how incredibly obviously his gamma nature comes through in his writing, now that I can recognize and name it. Symptoms?

Children's parents - Rich without showing any visible effort to achieve the wealth. Children given no structure, are sent to the beach all day without supervision. The Lena Dunharrow type of parent. Yet they are held up to be the ideal set of parents.

The children - talented, smart, so completely innocent and well behaved. Magically, since it seems they were never disciplined nor was there anything except abject spoiling by their parents.The boy is an inquisitive geek. Obviously a harmless and innocent boy who is vastly superior because of his love of books and knowledge. Kind of like the author sees himself.The girl is the creative mechanical genius, fascinated by science and oh so inventive and clever. The basic gamma projection of a fantasy female to overturn the facts that none of us have ever met a girl in real life who is like that, but a few who claim that was how they were as girls. The youngest is a little less obvious. But she is meant to evoke sympathy (how could someone be so cruel to a young baby), while being pretty much a nuisance biter and generally useless. Kind of like how childless liberals view young children, period.

I'm not sure I can bring myself to finish book one. I'm torn between donating the books to the local library so that they won't buy a copy and thereby deprive the author of some revenue, or dump them and thereby help keep some children from reading this subversive propaganda.

File 770's comments pretty much prove that we're over the target. The concern trolls and the trolls came out early this year, all eager to shame and tame Sad Puppies. I wonder how long it is until someone writes an article saying that Sad Puppies is dead...

I was once a huge fan of Sci Fi and Fantasy. As an 7 year old immigrant, I did not read much till Junior High. That was when I entered our school library and picked up my first book by Andre Norton and others. I proceeded to read every book in that section and moved on to the town library.

The older librarians still remember me. If I was not in one of my many school activities or in Football or Wrestling I was in the library. Sci Fi and Fantasy ignited my love of reading and till this day read approximately 50 books a year.

I passed this love of reading on to both of my older children. I have most of Vox's books and short storys and my son even purchased irrational Atheist and thought highly of the book.

We have had multiple discussions on the dearth of titles targeted for men long before we found your site. We are glad sites such as yours are providing a platform to voice these concerns.

Sad? I'm no sad, senor, I enjoying all dis stuff. Now, back to American. I do believe this next year I will have to buy a membership in the targeted 'con'. I almost did last year, but dollars are dear these days and getting dearer with all the brand spanking new demo tax increases and new taxes this year and next up coming. But, some things just scream for attention and sacrifice. I'll just have to cut back on popcorn and tough it out.

File 770's comments pretty much prove that we're over the target. The concern trolls and the trolls came out early this year, all eager to shame and tame Sad Puppies. I wonder how long it is until someone writes an article saying that Sad Puppies is dead...

Last year, it was fun to watch. This year, I will probably spring for a ticket. To be honest, if the opposition does come out with a better book, I will give it credit. That's what the thing is supposed to be about isn't it. But hey, what's the chances of that! Go puppy gooo...

I find it facinating that the SJWs cannot comprehend that the Sad Puppies are laughing at them because they are so predictable. They can't figure out the joke because they can bear the idea that they are the punchline.

Seriously though, the feature I find most endearing to me about the cult is the fact that it was intentionally founded based upon a work of fiction. It is not surprising that a storyteller sect would produce many sound and traditional storytellers. The evangelization process incorporates a storytelling style, and I have heard some really well-crafted testimonies.

Joseph Smith had a story to tell. It should be no wonder that his religion produces some decent ones. I won't go as far as saying Blue SF is "dominated" by Mormons. More that if Mormons write, they tend toward Blue. Twilight was a romance novel and really didn't make any bones about it. It wasn't SJW Pink SF, because it isn't SJW, and it isn't SF. Romance can be Pink if it wants to. Its for girls.

I'll buy the Series of Unfortunate Events books from you. Or argue with you first that they're not what they seem. I already have a full set, and have given them to my children, but they're getting worn out already.

I can't recommend most Wolfe to the general blue audience, but Flynn is excellent SF. His Firestar series is like the Atlas Shrugged of near-future SF. Eifelheim is a first encounter novel, set in medieval Germany, and not for the faint-hearted. His latest, the "Spiral Arm" quartet, might be described as a lyrical space opera full of intelligent bad-assery.

'I can't recommend Wolfe to the general blue audience" You know what? Wolfe is a really good writer. No Shakespeare, but he does specific things Dickens and Heinlein could not have dreamed of doing."I can't recommend Mozart and Bix Beiderbecke to the general music audience." "Let them stick with the Captain and Tenille - I heard once that the Captain voted for George Bush in 1988!" Have some respect.

"Don Fitch on September 16, 2014 at 11:45 am said:I happen to feel that the two of Correia’s Titles menioned sound totally Bleh!, and I didn’t read them. I have read most of Scalzi’s works. I found them entertaining, and his blog even moreso. Great Science Fiction?… no, not at all, just competent and enjoyable. I happen to like Scalzi, and to not like Correia or Vox Dei. I hope… well, no, I actually don’t give a damn whether anyone approves of this or not."

This guy admits to not reading Correia. This guy admits Scalzi is merely passable. However, he still deems Scalzi better than those works that he refuses to read.

Just went to the Sasquan registration page and purchased a Supporting Membership...or at least I hope did. The quaint formatting plus coding errors on the web page serve as a not-so-subtle reminder that recreational marijuana is now legal in Washington.

Authomatthew:I read Eifleheim and found it highly enjoyable. A good read and well written, with a wonderful premise. (the book even gets into some theological questions: do non-earthly creatures have souls, and can they become Christian?)

Urth.net has a lot of great info. Many Wolfe stories - at least one a year in the 80s and 90s, often in the form of stories that were first published in anthologies - Red Mars, for example - are straight up and don't need a lot of extra thought, but for the ones that are complex urth.net is a great resource.